National Gendarmerie Intervention Group

The National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, commonly abbreviated GIGN (French: Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), is a special operations unit of the French Armed Forces. It is part of the National Gendarmerie and is trained to perform counter-terrorist and hostage rescue missions in France or anywhere else in the world.

The GIGN was formed in 1973. On 1 September 2007, a major reorganization took place. The original GIGN absorbed the Gendarmerie Parachute Squadron (EPIGN) and the thirty gendarmes of the Presidential Security Group (GSPR) to form a "new" expanded GIGN.

There are now three distinct parts to the unit:

History

After the Munich massacre during the Olympic Games in 1972, and a prison mutiny in Clairvaux Prison the year before, France started to study the possible solutions to extremely violent attacks, under the assumptions that these would be difficult to predict and deflect.

National Gendarmerie

The National Gendarmerie (French: Gendarmerie nationale [ʒɑ̃daʁməʁi nasjɔnal]) is a branch of the French Armed Forces, in charge of public safety, with police duties among the civilian population in France. It also contains a military police force and a special forces component (GIGN). It had a strength of more than 98,155 personnel as of 2011.

The Gendarmerie works with the other national law enforcement agency, the Police Nationale, and from 2009, although it is a part of the armed forces establishment, it is now a part of the Ministry of the Interior as its military component and forms part of its operations and budget. It is mandated to fulfill national security duties and duties in support of its parent ministry.

History

Early history of the institution

The Gendarmerie is the direct descendant of the Marshalcy of the ancien regime, more commonly known by its French title, the Maréchaussée.

During the Middle Ages, there were two Grand Officers of the Kingdom of France with police responsibilities: The Marshal of France and the Constable of France. The military policing responsibilities of the Marshal of France were delegated to the Marshal's provost, whose force was known as the Marshalcy because its authority ultimately derived from the Marshal. The marshalcy dates back to the Hundred Years War, and some historians trace it back to the early twelfth century.

National Gendarmerie (Burkina Faso)

The National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Nationale) is the police service of Burkina Faso.

The service is a branch of the Burkina Faso military acting under the authority of the Minister of Defence.

See also

References

External links